Diversity in Action - Back Market x The Allyance
💖 The purpose of The Allyance is to help both companies and candidates: companies wanting to reach excellence in hiring and candidates wanting to find the perfect companies.
Today, we are sharing the story behind a collaboration between Back Market and The Allyance. In June 2020, Back Market’s Chief People Officer reached out to Caroline Chavier in order to know who could deliver a training about unconscious biases to the executive committee. And guess what? Caroline did! Discover what Back Market has been doing since then!
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🔗 DIVERSITY IN ACTION N°1
ALBANE BRESSOLLE-CHATAIGNER
Let’s meet with Albane and understand how she worked with the Allyance and Caroline.
———Who are you? Tell us everything!
Since September 2019, I’m Chief People Officer at Back Market, a French marketplace of refurbished products. Before, I worked in HR (Human Resources), mainly in tech, a sector I was not destined to but ended up loving!
💚 At Back Market, I am in charge of people initiatives, HR management and recruitment, always close to the people and the human part of HR. I do believe that people are the first factor of success, so we’d better take care of them!
How did you hear about us?
🦄 Well, first, I got to know Caroline because we were working in the same recruitment team at Criteo 4 years ago. Then, despite the fact that we changed jobs, we kept in touch and she told me about The Allyance. As DEI (Diversity , Equity and Inclusion) is very important to me, I absolutely wanted to stay tuned on her new activity!
How did you collaborate with The Allyance?
💎 We built and organized a training day about unconscious biases in recruitment. This interactive training was destined to Back Market’s Black Bird Counsel, fka the Executive Committee (2 women and 11 men). The goal was to be able to imagine a real proposition. In the morning, Caroline introduced The Allyance, animated Q&As and debates. Secondly, in the afternoon, we brainstormed during a workshop and got out with information, ideas and the expected action plan, crystal clear on who does what.
How was the training prepared?
📌 Caroline is committed to providing a personalised training, tailored to the company’s culture and expectations. We had two meetings over the phone to discuss how the training would be: she sent me the decks, the topics she wanted to address based on our requests, a precise schedule and every participant’s role. This was truly well done, personalised and a genuine moment of exchange between her and me.
What did you want to achieve by delivering a training about unconscious biases to your executive committee?
🎯 The goal was to determine one strategy, one objective based on Back Market’s will to act on DEI. I wanted to answer these questions:
What does DEI mean for Back Market?
What do we want to implement in order for DEI to become Back Market’s priority?
Do we want to take our time in recruitment in order to make DEI a real priority?
What actions did you implement following the training?
This interesting training by The Allyance as well as my true beliefs on the importance of DEI gave me the impulse to implement a lot of things within Back Market.
📊 My main action was to send a survey on DEI to all our employees. I launched it to get a glimpse of what DEI means for them. It featured questions such as:
Did you suffer or witness any discrimination, whether it was an act, a situation or a speech?
Within the company, do you personally feel included and well?
This survey was highly interesting because we got to see how some people can be pro but also against positive discrimination and still believe in a meritocratic system.
I also built a guild of volunteers willing to launch initiatives across the company, not only in the HR department. Indeed, I truly believe that these matters should be addressed in all departments because they belong in the company’s culture.
About people training, in mid-September, we started to train managers and interviewers to DEI. On some positions, we decided to recruit directly from DEI and change job descriptions so they better match our goal to be more inclusive.
We also created the “Anne Bonny’s club”, a group of women launching initiatives such as conferences, workshop about their concerns as female employees: work-life balance, asking for a raise, the glass ceiling, and generally self-confidence.
Albane Bressolle and Back Market won the Governance France Digital Talent Award in September 2020!
What was the feedback from the training’s attendees?
🖤 The feedback was positive. Every attendee was happy to get out of this training with a true, quantitative and qualitative action plan. They still are quite interested in these topics and aware of the changes we have to implement.
I did not witness any objection from the Executive Committee. The resistance mostly came from the employees when they filled out the survey: some of them have strong opinions about DEI. That’s why we have to stay open-minded and always pay attention to what they have to say.
What made the training unique?
💡 This training was far from the classroom type. It was really a moment of exchange with a constant possibility for everyone to interact with each other and with Caroline. As I said before, the best thing was that we got out with clear ideas. The action plan was built during the training, thanks to this constant interaction between people and the efficiency of Caroline’s method.
What’s your point of view about Diversity & Inclusion?
🏆 DEI is highly important to me, on the professional but also on the personal level. I was raised to believe that I could do whatever I wanted. It was great but came with misconceptions about what a woman can do (or not) at work.
And one day, I suffered from a direct discrimination at my workplace and clearly understood what was at stake. So, I decided to struggle and progressively manage teams with more and more women. I am not interested in opinion anymore, I am much more into the "ACTION" mode! It’s also because I’m a mother and want to build a bright future for my daughter. Since the beginning, I have been very clear with Back Market’s recruitment team about this highly important aspect of my work. The fact they were in the same mindset led me where I am today.
How do you describe yourself? A Diversity Advocate? An ally?
🙌🏻 It is so difficult to describe oneself! I would not define myself as an ally because I am directly affected by sexism and discrimination against women. I would prefer to call myself a feminist. Being a feminist does imply that diversity is a choice and a priority in both my professional and personal life. I truly feel that my duty is to act on diversity on a daily basis.
What would you recommend to other HR Directors who would like to start working on DEI?
✅ It is absolutely essential that HR Directors are supported by external companies and/or consultants. This topic is so complicated on many levels: any help is more than welcome. That help is crucial to deconstruct, dissect the first topics in order to analyse the first steps to take towards DEI, and tailor it depending on the company’s culture. Every HR Director should look closely at that issue, not just to comply with quantitative regulations, but in a sincere, egalitarian and human way.
Why would you recommend other companies to work with The Allyance?
💓 Obviously! In fact, I already do whenever I can: during calls with start-up companies, also because this topic comes up often in conversations. Everytime, I recommend Caroline (if it has not already been done by someone else!) and tell them about her deep qualitative approach, 100% tailored for small groups such as executive committees.
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A few words from Caroline, The Allyance CEO:
“Albane and I have been known each other for several years now. We have in common the fact of being sensitive to diversity and to transform this word into corporate actions. I remember Albane recommending the documentary “Miss Representation”, watching it and feeling proud to work for such a HR Director!
I am extremely proud to have had the chance to train Back Market’s excutive committee on unconscious biases and their impact on recruitment and culture. I am even more proud to know they acted and implemented numerous DEI initiatives following the training! ”
✔️ Want more?
➡️ If you are interested in knowing more about the DEI trainings, you can also get in touch with The Allyance and book a free conversation with Caroline Chavier, at the bottom of the page: https://www.theallyance.one/ or write to her: caroline[at]theallyance[dot]one
———ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
✒️ Léa C, The Allyance Contributor: “I joined The Allyance 1,5 year after Caroline and I met at a ionnalee’s concert! I am a freelance translator and content writer (French, English, Spanish and German). I also work as an administrative employee in the health and data science sector. So, I am not far from Caroline’s core topic! I am very active as a volunteer in social and environmental NGOs, where I always try to put intersectionality at the center of actions because I am convinced that every cause is linked to one another. It is readily apparent that Caroline and I share a lot of common interests, which is why we as friends decided to work together!”